


promises, promises

by effie214



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 16:06:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/effie214/pseuds/effie214
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Promise me we'll keep flying forever." As requested on Tumblr; prompt: accidental baby acquisition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	promises, promises

_“Tell me this isn’t it,” he whispers in her hair after their final interview of the day. They’re in the back of a hired car and there is — as there has not been for a long time - any space between them. They breathe in tandem, just as their hearts beat, and he drinks her in; her scent, the way she curls against him. It’s everything and nothing at the same time, because they still haven’t defined whatever this is, but right now, he doesn’t care. He just wants to hear her answer. “Promise me you’re not leaving.”_

_She turns her head slightly, brushing her lips against his jaw as she answers. “I promise.”_

She comes to set whenever she’s in the area (which includes London, because the trip isn’t much of a bothersome trek when she just needs to feel at home again. And home is Wales and him, even on the coldest of mornings when he wraps her in his puffy jacket and whispers things she doesn’t hear but needs to know in time with the wind.)

The crew always welcomes her back like the prodigal daughter, and Matt keeps her up to date on all the goings-on backstage as well as on, so Karen’s thrilled to meet an AD’s five-month-old daughter when she arrives on-set straight from the airport and a trans-Atlantic flight from New York. The pink-clad little girl is alert and amiable, and Karen laughs after the baby scrunches up her nose at something. She talks with the AD but keeps glancing at the baby, who seems fascinated by the long necklace she’s wearing, and before she realizes what’s happening, the child is reaching for her intently.

_She’s not sure what instinct makes her do it — she’s still rubbish with children, having had so little experience — but she claps her hands gently and reaches back, silently asking if the baby, called Sophie, is sure. The baby gurgles with a toothless grin and her mum hands her over. It’s natural and surprising all in one, and she glances to Matt as he rehearses and thinks back to the start, so similar and an apparent harbinger of things to come._

_She’s sitting on top of her counter, legs swinging freely as he does the washing up. They’ve watched the last Pond episode together, and she’s awash with indecipherable emotions, but not about her leaving. She watches Matt, so comfortable and cemented in the life that was once hers but feels more and more like it’s becoming theirs, and has to smile at how calm and centered and complete it makes her feel._

_Perhaps her future started in that audition room, but it resets in her kitchen when she reaches over and grabs his sleeve. He turns toward her, and she tugs him closer until he’s standing squarely between her legs. She runs a hand through his hair and looks down at him, a smile tugging at her lips._

_“This is the beginning, isn’t it?” She asks, moving her hand until it rests at the nape of his neck and plays with the uneven hair there._

_He’s quiet, and she can’t tell if he’s trying to process what’s happening — what’s been so obviously happening, for so long and to so many people — or if he’s trying to find a good way to let her down gently. The fear lodges in her throat and the take-away he’d brought starts to mix with the desperation that the dream isn’t shattered. She tries to swallow, then to speak, but nothing comes out. Finally, with words failing her, she does the only thing she knows how to: act._

_She kisses him, wholly and full of promise, and smiles against his mouth after he reciprocates and says in a throaty but completely determined whisper, “Just the beginning.”_

 

The production manager comes over as Karen and the AD are talking and Sophie is amusing herself first with the edges of Karen’s hair and then her necklace, chubby fingers grabbing hold and shaking it for all the world to see, comfortable in her new friend’s arms. With an apologetic smile, Heddi asks if she can borrow the AD for a moment, needing a more experienced hand to set the scene instead of the one that’s been hired to cover her maternity leave. 

Karen offers an easy smile and says, “Sophie and I are fine here.”

And they are. Somehow, they are. She walks Sophie toward stage left where they can get a better look at the TARDIS set, mindful of the cords laid for lighting and sound. She points to the circular lights, aglow in warm oranges, and watches as Sophie loses interest in the necklace and looks up, eyes wide in wonder. She moves their attention to the glass floor and says, “That’s where Auntie Karen had to lie covered in filthy white stuff and pretend to be cold,” she says, and Sophie giggles. 

“Oh, you think that’s funny?” Karen asks, tickling Sophie’s chubby stomach. “You think that’s funny?”

Sophie screeches happily and Karen scrunches up her nose in response, which sets Sophie laughing again. There’s magic in the sound, a captured marveling that is a balm to Karen’s exhausted person. She misses home, she misses him, but this somehow makes it a little bit okay.

It’s everything and nothing at once; something so simple it can’t be compared, and yet there is an edge of possibility to it, and Karen feels it as it slides against her.

She keeps walking Sophie carefully around set, talking of all the “fiddly bits” on the console and how much fun she and Matt had throwing themselves down as the TARDIS took flight. Always opposite but always in sync, even from the beginning, and as she looks at the fascinated baby in her arms, she is more certain than ever of what she wants and where she needs to go.

Unexpectedly but still somehow on cue, she feels a familiar hand slide up her back, and Matt comes into her peripheral vision. He presses a kiss to her temple in greeting and slides his left arm around her waist, pulling her closer. Sophie looks at him momentarily, blinks disinterestedly, and then glances to Karen expectantly, waiting for more stories. 

Karen adjusts Sophie on her left hip and feeling the warmth of Matt next to her, starts talking about Amelia Pond and the crack in the wall and how she flew away with her best friend. 

From next to her, Matt whispers, “Promise me we’ll keep flying forever.”

Karen glances to Sophie, more sure of herself than she’s ever been, and then looks back to Matt. The feeling bolsters in intensity and intent when their gazes lock, and Karen reaches for his hand, linking her fingers with his. It’s all that’s needed, because she promised him that a long time ago.


End file.
